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Chocolate Walnut Cake
3 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup boiling water 1 cup sugar 1 cup pastry flour 1/3 cup health cocoa 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1 teaspoon vanilla Make like Plain Cake, folding in the flour, cocoa, and nuts together. One-third cup of oil may be beaten into the batter just before folding in the flour.
Caramel Pecan Loaf Cake (Mr. J. A. Wahlen) 3 eggs 1/4 cup hot water 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups pastry flour 1/4 cup oil 1/2 cup halves of pecan meats Caramel to give a delicate color Make like Cake Shortened with Oil, beating the caramel into the batter just before folding in the flour.
Frost with icing made by stirring powdered sugar into beaten egg white or cream and coloring it with a few drops of caramel. Decorate the top with pecan halves.
A sponge-method chocolate cake with no chemical leavening: all the lift comes from eggs beaten to full volume, so the beating and the folding are the whole recipe.
- The hinge is the egg foamWith no baking powder or soda in the list, the cake rises only on air whipped into the eggs. Beat the whole eggs with the sugar until they are pale and fall from the beater in a thick ribbon, several minutes with an electric mixer, then fold everything else in by hand.
- "Make like Plain Cake"The referenced method is not reprinted here, but the ingredient list (boiling water, no chemical leavening) points to a hot-water sponge: beat the eggs and sugar, beat in the boiling water and salt, add vanilla, then fold in the dry ingredients. The boiling water goes in while beating and is generally held to lighten the foam.
- Health cocoaMost likely simply plain unsweetened cocoa powder, the term being the sort of wording used in health-oriented cookery of the period. Natural (non-alkalised) unsweetened cocoa is the closest match; Dutch-process will read darker and milder.
- Pastry flourLower in protein than all-purpose. Substitute cake flour straight across, or use all-purpose with two tablespoons per cup replaced by cornstarch.
- Sift the cocoa with the flourCocoa lumps and refuses to disperse if dumped on the foam. Sift it with the flour, toss the chopped walnuts through the mixture, and fold the whole in three additions to avoid deflating the batter.
- The optional oilThe one-third cup of oil will give a moister, less springy crumb, though fat tends to cost some rise in a foam batter. Beat it in thoroughly before the flour goes in, as directed.
- Pan and ovenThe original gives neither. Bake in a greased and floured 8- or 9-inch round or square pan at 350F for roughly 30 to 35 minutes, until the centre springs back. Makes one modest layer, eight to ten servings.